The rapid transition of databases to the cloud, together with the challenges of database maintenance, has caused a massive demand for user-friendly managed services. To meet the demand, UpCloud launched Managed Databases – a scalable and fully automated database solution.
But what was the project like, and what are the benefits of UpCloud Managed Databases? Let’s find out.
Effortless by design
Since the project’s kickoff, Ilkka Sarpila has been working as the Product Owner of the Managed Databases team. Thanks to his background in consulting, it was easy for him to understand customers’ needs in the development process.
“It is surprisingly common that maintaining a self-managed IT infrastructure eats up resources that companies could otherwise use to build their applications. That is why they are looking for a partner to take care of the burden of database maintenance. The problem is, it can be hard to find trustworthy but inexpensive cloud service providers.”
“I did my best helping to develop a database solution that I would like to work with myself.”
The idea behind UpCloud Managed Databases was to make the user’s life easier. Therefore the effortlessness of the user experience was a priority.
“For example, it was essential to make the transition to Managed Databases as simple as possible. And now you only need to signup, create a database with the help of our tutorials, and that is it. And if there is a need for support to help you with the transition, you can always contact our 24/7 available, in-house customer service.”
Similarly, Managed Databases are easy to scale up – it is possible to start with a small database and later add more resources on the fly.
“A 2 or 3 node clustered configuration would take a lot of resources for a company to manage and maintain in-house. On the other hand, with Managed Databases, it takes minimal effort to scale up when needed,” Sarpila says.
Keeping the data safe and sound
When evaluating cloud service providers, the security of the cloud is always considered. Services and the way they are operated need to be secure by design and default.
UpCloud’s services have end-to-end encryption, and all backups are stored off-site independently from the user’s Managed Database. Everything is automated, and therefore customers do not need to worry about security issues; they have already been taken care of. Also, as a European company, UpCloud is naturally GDPR compliant.
The Managed Databases team gave a lot of thought to transparency and a safe user experience in general. “For example, we use open-source SQL since it does not force our customers to commit to a certain technology. Also, there are no licenses when using open-source, which means no hidden costs,” Sarpila says.
Unbeatable performance
As world-class performance has always been UpCloud’s competitive advantage, no compromises were made with this service either. Especially when a database is often the part of your infrastructure that can become a bottleneck for your application performance.
“I’m proud to say that this work has paid off. According to our performance tests, our services can handle five times more read and write operations than our biggest competitors.”
Seamless communication, instant support
The development process of UpCloud Managed Databases was quite similar to those many companies might have experienced during the pandemic.
“We worked together remotely not because of covid, but because our team members were located in Switzerland, Imatra, Moscow, Helsinki… It has been exciting to develop the product with a genuinely international team. In ten months, we were able to launch the first version of Managed Databases.”
Seamless communication and collaboration between both team members and customers of all sizes are cherished at UpCloud.
“If you can’t figure something out after checking our tutorials, we offer local support 24/7 within minutes. You can skip the part where you wait for an answer from a ticket system. Instead, you can have direct personal contact with our in-house support team,” Sarpila says. “The thing that makes us truly special compared to the bigger players on the field is our top-notch, 24/7 customer service.”
We at UpCloud want to grow together with our customers and genuinely value feedback. Our users have an actual impact on our future portfolio.
For example, UpCloud currently supports MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, but we are interested in adding something new soon. Kafka? OpenSearch? Let us know!
